ISLE OF WIGHT — More details have emerged in the case of the 18-year-old Williamsburg high school student found dead in Isle of Wight County more than two years ago.
The new information came to light at a plea agreement hearing last week for the man accused of killing Aonesty Selby, who was a senior at Warhill High School.
Andarius T. McClelland — Selby’s on-again, off-again boyfriend — was accused of shooting her the day after her 18th birthday, then dumping her body on a remote hunting trail in Isle of Wight.
A grand jury indicted McClelland, 24, of Newport News, in November 2024 on a first-degree murder charge, which carries a potential life term. But he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on July 9, cutting his maximum possible sentence to 40 years, with another three years for a gun charge.
According to court documents, Selby’s family called James City County police on Jan. 13, 2023, concerned they hadn’t heard from her in two days.
Later that day, one of her friends found that Selby’s phone was shown on a GPS location-sharing app in the area of the Blue Ridge Trail in Isle of Wight.
Selby’s parents and aunt went to the trail that night. Though a gate blocked access to their car, they began walking up the dirt path.
Isle of Wight Sheriff’s deputies also got to the gate after the relatives were already walking up the trail, according to an outline of the case by Isle of Wight Commonwealth’s Attorney Georgette Phillips.
Just after a deputy had gotten the keys, Phillips said, Selby’s mother, Amanda Bailey, called 911 to say the family had found the motionless teenager on the roadway, about 2 miles up the trail.
Selby wasn’t breathing. She was still wearing the clothes, makeup and hairstyle that she was wearing two days earlier. A state autopsy determined she died of a gunshot wound to her head and neck.
Phillips’ July 9 statement delved into how Isle of Wight sheriff’s investigators honed in on McClelland.
A woman who lived with Selby in Williamsburg told deputies she had last seen the teen on the morning of Jan. 11, 2023, and spoke with her about 8:30 p.m. that evening, the statement said.
Though the friend could tell there were “other people around” during that phone call, Selby seemed fine.
Investigators also learned that someone in Selby’s phone contacts by the name of “Lucas Duke” sent her $30 by CashApp in the afternoon of Jan. 11. She then took an Uber to an apartment on Coral Key Place, in Newport News’ Oyster Point section.
“I’m here,” Selby texted at 1:49 p.m.
Phillips’ statement said deputies traced the phone number for “Lucas Duke” to McClellan and learned that his brother leased the Coral Key Place apartment.
Deputies interviewed the brother, Andricus McClelland, who told them that Andarius borrowed his 2021 Dodge Charger that night and left about 8 p.m.
“He originally stated that Andarius left the house alone … but later stated that he left with a female matching the description of Aonesty,” Phillips’ statement said.
Andricus told investigators the Charger “was dirty” when his brother returned it — likening it to the mud spatters on the sheriff’s vehicles that had just returned from the Isle of Wight trail.
Deputies plugged details about the Charger into the Flock Safety surveillance camera system. Data showed that the car was driving in Isle of Wight at 10:47 p.m. on Jan. 11, heading onto the James River Bridge and back to Newport News.
When deputies asked Andricus about guns, he told them he keeps a 9 mm handgun in a dresser drawer, but he “did not recall any time that the gun was missing.”
But he later called a deputy back. This time, Andricus said he noticed on Jan. 13 that his gun was missing and confronted his brother about it. Andricus said his brother told him the gun was “dirty,” and that he “needed to get rid of it.”
Another man told deputies that Andarius brought him the gun “in a plastic bag” Jan. 13, asking him to sell it. But before that man could pawn it off, Andricus called a few days later wanting the weapon back.
Police later found the Glock 9 mm handgun in a nightstand drawer at the Coral Key Place address, sending it to the Virginia Department of Forensic Science for testing.
Phillips said the gun matched evidence from the crime. A cartridge casing found at the scene and a bullet found in Selby’s body were “both fired from the Glock firearm,” she said.
Deputies arrested McClelland Jan. 17, 2023.
McClelland admitted he had met up with Selby six days earlier. He initially told investigators she borrowed the Charger to pick up her cousin “and never came back,” even as the car was parked at the complex by morning.
When deputies confronted McClelland “with information contrary to his story,” he changed his version of events, Phillips said.
This time, McClelland said he and Selby left his brother’s apartment in the Charger about 8 p.m., going to a nearby Wawa to buy cigars. They later drove to “a country area” and went down a dirt road, getting there after 9 p.m.
“He told investigators that after they got out to smoke, they began hearing noises in the woods,” Phillips said in the statement. “He described being startled by Aonesty stepping towards him, causing him to fire the gun.”
He told deputies he left the gun at the scene. But when deputies told him they had recovered the firearm elsewhere, he told them he “broke the gun down” and “put it in bleach,” then tried to sell it “because he was scared.”
Phillips said that when investigators seized McClelland’s cellphone, it had been “factory reset” Jan. 17. That’s a procedure used to wipe a phone’s data.
Phillips also said McClelland wrote an apology to Selby’s family, though it was not immediately clear what he said.
McClelland was initially indicted on a second-degree murder charge, but backed out of a deal to plead guilty, Phillips said. That caused Phillips to raise the stakes, asking a grand jury to indict him on a first-degree murder count.
“If I’m going to try a case and call witnesses and put the family through that,” she said, then she wants the chance “to have a conviction on the highest charge available to me.”
But first-degree murder can be difficult to prove, particularly the premeditation element. Moreover, two key prosecution witnesses now live out of state, and another crucial witness was McClelland’s brother.
Though Selby’s family believed a first-degree murder case charge was clearly warranted, Phillips said she consulted with them about the plea agreement.
“I did have evidence to support (a first-degree charge), but it would not be a slam dunk,” she said.
McClelland’s attorney could not be reached Thursday. McClelland is being held without bond at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail and is scheduled to be sentenced in November.
Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, [email protected]
